The Vet Blog posted an interesting and, I dare to say, smart article about research on Dog Vs. Cat intelligence and who’s smarter.
But if you are going to claim decisively that one species is smarter than the other, you had better use a definitition of intelligence that is universally accepted. In my opinion, the debate over the intelligence of cats and dogs is far from resolved.
While most cats will tell you that cats are smarter – by far – than dogs, they will also agree that smart dogs and stupid cats are everywhere, unfortunately.
Just because some humans like their furiends to do whatever they want them to do does not make the furiends that submit smarter. That cats are less social than dogs doesn’t make them more stupid either. My human is independent and so am I. Yet we usually spend quality time together. She might even think that refusing to be cuddled by her when I don’t want to makes me a more sincere furiend.
Again, quoting Dr. Eric Barchas:
Finally, let us not confound pleasing humans with intelligence. If I hold up a baby carrot and tell Buster to sit, he will do it. If I hold up that same carrot and tell a cat and a Nobel laureate in physics to sit, they probably will not. Does this make Buster the smartest creature in the room?
Thank you, Dr. Barchas, for this post. I too think that the issue is far more complicated than social = smart, and independent = not that smart. My human will agree ;-)
Texas, a cat in New York 
I think intelligence boils down to who rules the house. Usually, it’s one of us kitties.
Sparkle: True enough, which would mean usually we are smarter than humans ;-)
[…] mentioned in a previous post, my human is independent and so am I. We both are very conscious that we live our lives […]